thumb|12th company, 150th regiment, 8th division, Xinjiang production and Construction Corps
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), also known as Bingtuan, trading with the external name China Xinjian Group, is a state-owned enterprise and paramilitary organization in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The XPCC was established in 1954 under the orders of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, and developed sparsely populated areas in its early decades, taking the model of the traditional tuntian system of setting military units in frontier areas. The XPCC was severely damaged during the Cultural Revolution, and was outright abolished in 1975, before being re-established in 1981, partly due to the Soviet–Afghan War. It re-established its economic dominance over Xinjiang afterwards, also being responsible for maintenance against the "three evils" (separatism, religious extremism, and terrorism). In its history, the XPCC has built farms, towns, and cities, provided land and employment to disbanded military units, and re-settled Han migrants from other parts of China in what has been called a campaign of assimilation and Sinicization of the local Uyghur population.
The XPCC is under both the Central People's Government and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional People's Government. headed by the Party Secretary of Xinjiang, while XPCC's own party secretary typically concurrently serves as its political commissar and acts as its highest day-to-day authority, and is considered to be the second most-powerful person in Xinjiang after the Party Secretary. The XPCC operates cities, where it provides prisons, healthcare, policing, judiciary, and education, and has stakes in numerous publicly traded companies. It is extensively involved in economic, political and military affairs of Xinjiang, being called a "state in a state".
History
The XPCC draws from the traditional Chinese tuntian system, a policy of settling military units in frontier areas so that they become self-sufficient in food, and similar policies in the Tang and Qing dynasties.
In October 1954 the Production Division was ordered by the Mao Zedong to form People's Liberation Army Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, tasked to "Integrate labor with violent, colonize and populate the frontier" in 1954. XPCC was founded by Wang Zhen. It initially comprised 175,000 military personnel, led by Tao Zhiyue as its first commander. It provided a reserve military force, although they were not called upon. After 2008, as a result of improvements in farm mechanization, students were no longer compelled to pick the cotton crop.
Starting in the 1980s, a stated task has been to prevent and break down "destructive activities of the three forces", (separatism, religious extremism, and terrorism), in order to protect social stability and national unity. Turkel added: